Wall Street gains on Boeing surge and coronavirus drug hopes

[April 18, 2020]  By Caroline Valetkevitch

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday and also posted gains for the week, boosted by a surge in Boeing shares, President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the coronavirus-battered economy and hopes of a potential drug by Gilead to treat COVID-19.

The Nasdaq added 6.1% for the week and registered its biggest two-week percentage gain since 2001.

Boeing <BA.N> shares soared nearly 15% on plans to restart commercial jet production in Washington state after halting operations last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gilead Sciences Inc <GILD.O> surged almost 10% following a report that patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, had responded positively to its experimental drug remdesivir. The report cited partial data from a University of Chicago hospital, one 152 locations participating in the trial.

With no treatments or vaccines currently approved for the coronavirus, the news helped lift global equity markets. But Gilead said the totality of the data from the trial needed to be analyzed, and it expected to report results from a study testing the drug in severe COVID-19 patients at the end of April.

"If you can ultimately get a powerful treatment in lieu of a vaccine in the next couple of months, that would be good for cyclical stocks, anything economically sensitive," said R.J. Grant, head of trading at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York. "If we can get some sort of back-to-normal in some way that the economy could start to function, the banks are going to rip," he added.

The S&P 500 is up nearly 30% from its March trough following a raft of global stimulus and hopes that the spread of the virus was nearing a peak in the United States.

However, the S&P remains about 15% off its all-time high, and strategists have warned of a deep economic slump from the halt in business activity and layoffs.

Some U.S. states are expected to begin announcing timetables for lifting restrictions. On Thursday, Trump unveiled guidelines for a staggered, three-stage process by states to lift restrictions on business and social life to curb the pandemic.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is seen in the financial district of lower Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 704.81 points, or 2.99%, to 24,242.49, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 75.01 points, or 2.68%, to 2,874.56 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 117.78 points, or 1.38%, to 8,650.14.

For the week, the Dow added 2.2% and the S&P 500 rose 3%.

The reopening guidelines "provide some hope and optimism for folks and the market and the whole economy. It's a start," said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.

Bradshaw, who owns Boeing shares, said the planemaker's news was positive as well. "I certainly haven't given up on it," he said.

Bank stocks recovered after four straight days of losses triggered by lenders' reporting several billion dollars in reserves to cover potential loan defaults. The S&P 500 financial index <.SPSY> ended up 5.6%, while the S&P energy index <.SPNY> jumped 10.4%.

Apple Inc <AAPL.O> fell 1.4% as Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock on expectations of a 36% drop in iPhone shipments during the company's fiscal third quarter due to coronavirus-related lockdowns.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.75 billion shares, compared to the 13.72 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 5.18-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.88-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 13 new lows.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Sinead Carew, Medha Singh and Akanksha Rana; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

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